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cloak of a Christian profession, they either forsake the people of God
entirely or else never come into their number.

Some are born of the _will of man_. Such may be those who suffer
themselves to be influenced by others; coaxed, persuaded, nor even
induced by the promise of reward, to join a certain church and worship
in a certain way, because it is fashionable and in good style.

Some _are born of God_. Such are those who out of an honest heart
bring forth the fruit of the Spirit unto perfection.

Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, shows the striking contrast
between the fruit of man's fleshly, sensual or animal nature and that
of his spiritual or renewed nature. The first he calls THE FLESH; the
last, THE SPIRIT. Man's spirit is what is born again. In one place he
designates the new birth as "being renewed in the _spirit_ of the
mind." In another place as "dead to the world, but alive unto God."
The prayer of such is: "Lord, what wouldst THOU have me to do?"
Finding a clear answer to this prayer in the Word of Truth, they are
willing to follow its leadings. They descend into the baptismal wave
"for the remission of sins." They go into the house of God and are not
above stooping to wash one another's feet. They eat the Lord's Supper.
They commune with him in the emblems of his broken body and shed
blood. They continue to walk as nearly as they can in all the commands
and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

The difference between the present and future state of the man who
lives after the flesh and that of the man who lives after the spirit
is very sharply marked in many places in Paul's writings, in words
that cannot be easily misunderstood. He uses such language as this:
"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the
Spirit do mortify the deeds [lusts] of the body, ye shall live." "To
be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace." "He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap
corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap
life everlasting." "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of
God,"--which is the new birth,--"is eternal life, through Jesus Christ
our Lord."

All these quotations are in perfect accord with our Lord's closing
words to the Sermon on the Mount: "Every one that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish
man, which built his house upon the sand: ... and it fell: